ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — A yet-to-be-built expressway in Central Florida will include technology that will allow some electric vehicles to charge while driving.

What You Need To Know

  • Central Florida Expressway Authority will build a wireless charging system into a new toll expressway

  • The expressway is called State Road 516, connecting Orange and Lake counties

  • Only specialty equipped electric vehicles will be able to receive a charge during the test period

  • State Road 516 is expected to open in 2027

The Central Florida Expressway Authority is teaming up with ASPIRE, an engineering research center, to install a wireless charging system within one of the travel lanes of the new toll expressway that will be built to connect Orange and Lake counties.

CFX spokesman Brian Hutchings said it’s part of a pilot project.

“It would just have the embedded coils in the road and they would be electrified and when the car travels over it, the electric vehicle travels over it, it would sense that it was compatible and it would start the charge,” Hutchings said.

Only specialty equipped vehicles from the expressway authority will be able to receive the charge during this test period, Hutchings said.

Eventually, though, the hope is electric vehicle drivers like Angela Westhead will be able to charge on the go.

“I love the idea of leaving my house fully charged and then arriving at my destination fully charged," Westhead said. "It completely gets rid of what we call range anxiety, which is that fear you have of running out of charge and not being near a charger.”

The pilot project is set to debut when the rest of the expressway, called State Road 516, opens in 2027.

The State Road 516 project will cost approximately $500 million to build.

Of that, the electric vehicle pilot project totals $17 million.

Construction is expected to begin next spring.